The classic Infernal Affairs trilogy has got itself a 4K restoration and a trailer has been released to show it off. The film(s) were remade in Hollywood by Martin Scorsese as The Departed, but this trilogy deserves a visit if you’re yet to check it out.
Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Leon Lai, Francis Ng, and Chen Daoming are among the cast. Criterion will release the remaster in November, full of bonus goodies.
Here’s the synopsis for the first movie.
Two of Hong Kong cinema’s most iconic leading men, TONY LEUNG CHIU-WAI and ANDY LAU TAK-WAH, face off in the breath-taking thriller that revitalized the citystate’s twenty-first-century film industry, launched a blockbuster franchise, and inspired Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. The setup is diabolical in its simplicity: two undercover moles—a police officer (Leung) assigned to infiltrate a ruthless triad by posing as a gangster, and a gangster (Lau) who becomes a police officer in order to serve as a spy for the underworld—find themselves locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse, each racing against time to unmask the other. As the shifting loyalties, murky moral compromises, and deadly betrayals mount, Infernal Affairs raises haunting questions about what it means to live a double life, lost in a labyrinth of conflicting identities and allegiances.
The disc is loaded with bonus material, including the following.
- New 4K digital restorations, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
- Audio commentaries for Infernal Affairs and Infernal Affairs II featuring codirectors Andrew Lau Wai-keung and Alan Mak and screenwriter Felix Chong Man-keung
- Alternate ending for Infernal Affairs
- New interview with Lau and Mak
- Archival interviews with Lau, Mak, Chong, and actors Andy Lau Tak-wah, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Kelly Chen Wai-lam, Edison Chen Koon-hei, Eric Tsang Chi-wai, and Chapman To Man-chak
- Making-of programmes
- Behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, and outtakes
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translations
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Justin Chang
Here’s the trailer. The restoration will get a limited theatrical release stateside in September followed by that November home release.
